Gold torcs from the Ipswich Hoard

Iron Age, around 75 BC
Found near Ipswich, Suffolk, England

Five of these gold torcs were found during construction work
near Ipswich in 1968. The sixth was found nearby about a year
later. They are one of two of the most famous collections of Iron
Age gold torcs in The British Museum. The other, much larger, was
found at Snettisham in Norfolk.

Torcs are ornaments worn around the neck. A person would have
had to have had a neck smaller than 18.7 cm in circumference to
wear these examples.

Scientific analysis by the Department of Scientific Research at
the British Museum shows that the torcs are made from an alloy
(mixture) of 90% gold and 10% silver. This is an important
discovery as it helps archaeologists to estimate more accurately
when they were made. Gold objects made from between 150 and 75 BC
have a high percentage of gold. Gold objects made after 75 BC have
more and more silver mixed with the metal. The scientific results
suggest this set of torcs were made around 75 BC. But highly
valuable objects like these might have been worn for many years
before they were buried.

Each torc was made by twisting two rods of gold around each
other. The ends, the 'terminals', were each cast on to the twisted
rods using the lost wax technique. Each terminal is hollow, the La
Tène-style decoration cut into the clay mould so that it stands up
from the surface of the ends, which were then polished. Each
terminal, of all the torcs, has a slightly different pattern from
its pair.

S. James and V. Rigby, Britain and the Celtic Iron Ag (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)